Olive Cafe

Olive Cafe is a family-owned Levantine restaurant, bakery, and market at 9530 James A Reed Road in south Kansas City, founded around 2004 by Jerusalem-born Salah Mansi and his wife Nijma — a roughly two-decade institution famous for its house-baked pita and halal Palestinian-Mediterranean fare, with the family’s newer market-cafe, The Olive / Zaytoona, opened in 2025 on Bannister Road.

Description

Olive Cafe is a family-owned halal Levantine eatery at 9530 James A Reed Road in south Kansas City, serving Palestinian and broader Middle Eastern fare alongside an attached grocery and bakery operation.¹² The kitchen is best known for its pita bread, baked fresh in-house and widely cited locally as among the best in Kansas City, which anchors a menu of chicken shawarma sandwiches, marinated chicken and lamb kebab platters, falafel, hummus, tabbouleh, Greek salad, and stews such as kalyah (ground beef with tomatoes, onions, and jalapeños).¹² The cafe has run a Mediterranean buffet on weekends and positions its food as broadly “universal” Mediterranean, extending past strictly Levantine staples.¹² Everything is prepared halal.²

Ownership and history

Olive Cafe is owned and operated by the Mansi family — founder Salah Mansi, a native of Jerusalem, and his wife Nijma Mansi.²¹ The business has served Kansas City for roughly two decades; an earlier original location operated on the city’s East Side as a combined grocery, butcher shop, bistro, and bakery before the family later anchored at 9530 James A Reed Road, and a midtown location formerly operated at 3927 Broadway Boulevard.¹² The midtown Broadway store was historically run by a Mansi son.¹

In 2025 the family opened a new venture, The Olive / Zaytoona, at 8015 Bannister Road — a three-in-one Mediterranean market, industrial bakery, and cafe. Salah Mansi owns the building and Nijma Mansi owns Zaytoona; the market stocks imported Palestinian olive oil, fava beans, maamoul cookies, grape leaves, and Arabic candies, with a cafe serving hummus platters, shawarma, and kebabs and a weekend buffet. The space displays photographs of Jerusalem throughout and is positioned to serve the nearby Muslim community around the Islamic Center of Greater Kansas City.²³

Links

• Phone: (816) 763-0009
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/olive-cafe-kansas-city
• Related (Zaytoona): https://www.zaytoonakc.com/

Sources

Disputes

None recorded.

Footnotes

1. The Pitch — “Olive Cafe in midtown gets Mediterranean to a tea” — https://www.thepitchkc.com/olive-cafe-in-midtown-gets-mediterranean-to-a-tea/ — accessed 2026-06-08. Asserts: founder Salah Mansi; Jerusalem origin; original East Side location as grocery/butcher/bistro/bakery opened ~7 years before the 2011 review (≈2004); midtown Broadway location run by a Mansi son; house-baked pita reputation; menu (shawarma, kebab platters, kalyah, samosas, sage tea); “universal” Mediterranean framing. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

2. Kansas City Star / Yahoo News — “New KC Mediterranean grocery, bakery, cafe (and sometimes buffet) opens” (June 18, 2025) — https://www.yahoo.com/news/kc-mediterranean-grocery-bakery-cafe-144820230.html — accessed 2026-06-08. Asserts: Olive Cafe served KC for two decades at 9530 James A Reed Rd (and formerly 3927 Broadway Blvd.); owners Salah Mansi (Jerusalem native, owns building) and wife Nijma Mansi (owns Zaytoona); halal/kosher; Palestinian olive oil and imported goods; weekend buffet; Jerusalem photographs; proximity to Islamic Center of Greater Kansas City. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

3. Here Kansas City — “Discover Mediterranean Restaurant Kansas City: The Olive Zaytoona” — https://www.herekansascity.com/olive-zaytoona-kansas-city/ — accessed 2026-06-08. Asserts: The Olive / Zaytoona at 8015 Bannister Rd; Mansi ownership; market + bakery + cafe; hummus, shawarma, kebabs; relationship to the original Olive Cafe. ↩